The Washington bee., 1887-04-16

relative q inferred from the cor
rection) to the ordinary habits of
home folks; the speakers, both
middle aged men, assailed with
considerable spirit many Of the
derisions, so dear to woman kind
as the word "shallow" fell on my
ear, found myself wondering what
home life must be in company with
one who, seemingly could exercise
no leniency toward feminine tastes;
one thought seemed to lead to an
other and finally found myself,
wondering why the gent spoke as
he did surely there must have been
a cause my own home life occurr-
ed to Mr.. / could remember instan-
ces of harmless neglect of some lit
tie service on my party when, l have
relied upon the kind indulgence of
the sustaining member of the
household for exoneration from
blame; now it might be, that right
here in this thought might be found
the secret source of so many un-
kind but just complaining among
the individual members Of our
households; l do not say we should
curtail our pleasures, but bear in
mind always, the proper position
in which we should place our
homes.
Second only to the service, that
our hearts should render our Max.
er; first of all earthly interests,
recollecting how desirable love
and true happiness around the
hearth stone is. Every wise house
keeper should willingly devote
certain amount of her time to
thought and study, should study
with earnest determination those
things even though they be prosy
in appearance, that have direct
tendency towards contributing to
home pleasures. Let the house keep
er remember times when she was
taken unaware by friends who had
travelled long way to see her; let
her also remember how fortunate
she was, if she possessed that hap
py faculty of preparing at moments
notice repaSt for her hungry
guests. Now let the mind retain
the thought but change the charac.
ters. Suppose it was a tired hus.
band or hungry children from
school, now in sketch of this
kind it is almost impossible to es-
innate the pleasure the Sc little
tastely prepared morsels would
give our own hungry home folks.
Then let us ask ourselves, after all
where can we expect to find true
happiness, if not in our own homes,
and how can we-expect to possess
happiness unless we render our
selves by a loving consideration of
all those around us worthy of such
a prize. Now l think it behooves
us all to take marked interest
in all those things, that are most
likely to render the home a place
to live in, not simply to board and
lodge in, and bear in mind at the
same time how we often sit among
friends and recall instances of our
childhoods joys and pain, that in
like manner our children will do
when they have older grown.
Often the careful house keeper is
favored by circumstances to resort
to many economical devices in
order to make articles of general
use more lasting than they would
be if care and justice were not ex-
ercised. Now a hint as to the
care of house linen might be
of some service to the mend
ing basket. AS a wide sheet wear
out first down the centre a good
plan is to tear it down the middle
and sew the sides together; this
can be repeated the second time,
the sheet will do nicely for the
childrens bed. When SO badly
worn as to be past mending cut
the best parts into squares for
patch rags, and "pillow slips
should be patched with pieces" of
old sheets as soon as they show
signs of wearing. 1t is a bad
plan to patch old things with new
pieces as the garmant will out wear
before the patch not only that but
the strength of the new goods will
cause tho old garment to pull from
the patch. The old portion that
the patch is to represent should be
cut away and the edges neatly hem
med down. When the table cloth
is past service for the table
napkins for the children and tea
trays can be cut from the best Dor
tions thus saving the best napkins
much wear.
Stale lard can be made sweet by
bringing to boil with slices Of cold
raw potatoes cut and thrown in the
Impurities will rise to the top and
can be skinned off.